Maryland immigration patriot Paul Mendez [Email him] writes on the well-funded, and occasionally violent opposition to a Maryland Petition Drive against the local MD DREAM Act,Â in which concerned citizens are trying to keep the government from giving their tax dollars to unconcerned non-citizens.

Subject: Another Update on Petition Drive Against MD DREAM Act

Another brief note to keep your readers up-to-date on the petition drive to put Maryland's DREAM Act to a state-wide referendum.

On June 30, petition organizers presented the State Board of Elections with a second and final batch of approximately 74,000 petitions. That makes a total of nearly 132,000 petitions, far in excess of the 55,376 required. While the 2nd group still needs to be validated, at this point it is inconceivable that the threshold will not be met for putting the issue on the November 2012 ballot.

In the final weeks, our opponents launched a well-funded campaign of interference and intimidation against petition gatherers.

I personally witnessed these tactics, and was myself the subject of a false police report by someone claiming I had refused to leave their property when asked.

These efforts, however, were too little and too late. DREAM Act supporters drank too much of their own Kool Aid and sincerely couldn't imagine taxpayers not being overjoyed at the chance to help cuddly undocumented teens with straight A's go to college. They never anticipated the peasants might revolt.

The Maryland State Board of Elections eagerly handed over to Sandler all the names, addresses & birth dates of petition signers as of May 31st. The electronic file given to Sandler will certainly be used to create a searchable, online database of personal information in order to punish signers, such as Sandler's gay rights clients have done in similar situations.

Irregardless of any future legal challenges, two immediate victories have already been won. First, implementation of the Maryland DREAM Act, which was scheduled for July 1, has been delayed at least until August 1 and likely until the next election. Second, the stunning overkill achieved by an unfunded, bi-partisan, grassroots citizens effort in deep-blue Maryland has got to give pause to potential supporters of Senator Durbin's national DREAM Act.

Those interested in following the signature validation process on a day-by-day basis can go to the Maryland State Board of Elections website here.